She is a conniving little s$%*. We allowed my parents to get her for DD as a Christmas gift, and it was a huge mistake. I am a dog person through and through. I am nice to the cat, and she follows me around endlessly. She wants nothing to do with DD, yet I can't go to the bathroom without her following me, and she is always tripping me! She hisses at DH all the time, for no reason. She has destroyed every set of curtains in my house. She knocked my coffee into my lap this morning and knocked over a lamp. I am so sick of it! I feel like we can't get rid of her because DD will be devastated and my dad will be so mad since he got it for her. I made a mistake that is going to last 20 years :(

Does anyone know how you can get an indoor/outdoor cat to come back? I think it would help if we let her outside sometimes, but I am afraid she would take off or something.

Whoa, ladies! I am sorry I have not been on top of this post as I have been getting stuff done around the house. Thank you all so much for all of the helpful information! I thought I was going to be bashed by cat lovers, but you have all been awesome.

To the one person who said she deserves a better home- I see where you are coming from, and there are times where I think about finding one for her, but DD is only three and would not understand at all. The cat does love playing with her, but won't cuddle with her. She only cuddles with me. It is funny that she has totally chosen me, the least cat loving person in the house, as "her person". I can't even sit on the toilet without seeing her little paws under the bathroom door.

Many of you asked if she is declawed. She is not, and I will not get her declawed. I think it is kind of mean and would worry if she got out, plus she is already 7 months old and I think you have to do it by 6 months. We do have soft paws on her, and it helps somewhat, but she gets them off all of the time.

I have not decided about letting her out yet...right now it is so freezing cold out there! Someone suggested a harness, so maybe when it is warmer we will try that.

Although she makes me nuts, I do think a lot of it is just that she is a kitten and has a ton of energy. We all play with her, and she has toys and her scratching post, but she needs more. Thank you again for all of your help!

idk, we adopted our cat. She was an outdoor cat and we kept food on the porch for her, now she comes and goes and as she pleases, and she follows me every where too and is always right under my feet, lol.

Previous cats that I had, had gotten out, they always came back eventually. I wouldn't know about training one to do so though.

by Anonymous 1 - Original Poster

January 18, 2013 at 1:56 PM

Sorry, had to go get groceries! To answer some questions, yes she is fixed and she is also up to date on all of her shots. She does have a scratching post and it is in a central location. She does use it all the time, but also uses my curtains, lol. My daughter loves running around with the string toy and the cat will chase her around. It just seems that she still has so much excess energy!! She spent three hours the other day ramming into the window trying to catch snow flakes...she is not the brightest, haha.

Make sure she's fixed but not declawed. I would open the back door and let her explore a bit then get her to come back in for the night (day). Leave her outside for a bit longer each time, leave a water bowl by the door and if she meows, let her in. Don't leave her outside overnight for a couple of weeks. My cat follows DD and me when we take a walk. Just like a dog. It's SO funny. The neighbors get a kick out of it.